SAHCOL Builds ‘Largest Cargo Warehouse in W’Africa’

Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) has said the cargo warehouse it is building at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos when completed would be ‘the largest of such facility in West Africa’ with modern IT driven security and safety cover.

Explaining the uniqueness of the warehouse, the spokesman of the company, Basil Agboarumi, said that all the materials used for the warehouse were pre-engineered and were produced from Wamco in Romania.

“Everything was imported down to Nigeria. What we are doing here is just assembling these materials. They were produced based on international standards; that is the very unique thing about the warehouse. Aside from that, there are a lot of provisions that have been made for different sections. We are going to have cold room different from freezer section; each of these is over 500 cubic metres in capacity.

There is also provision for a strong room for valuables, that one too has a cubic capacity of over 500 metres, a valuable section has also been earmarked and that would take over 1000 cubic metres and the total warehouse capacity is about 9,000 square metres,” he said.

Agboarumi said the company had made provision for expansion of the warehouse in future with the plan to extend it to over 20,000 square metres.

“There is a provision for a bulk break area which is outside the stage of the warehouse that covers about 2,500 square metres. It is attached to the warehouse from behind, apart from that there is also provision for a storage area, that one also covers an area of about 1500 square metres for cargos that come at night. The loading bay of the warehouse has the capacity of loading 22 trucks and the loading bay is designed in such a way that operations will not be affected under rain or sunshine because there is a kind of a shade on top of the loading bay so that the trucks can park inside and do their loading normally.”

On security and safety at the warehouse, the SAHCOL spokesman said that sophisticated cameras that are IT driven have been installed at different areas of the warehouse and they could be monitored several distances aware from the airport so that the company’s officials could monitor activities in the warehouse from both their homes and in the offices once logged to the system password.

“What we have provided inside the warehouse basically cameras are IT driven. They are cameras that run for 24 hours. All the entrance into the warehouse are all pre-fabricated, its building came from Romania with the doors, so they are of the highest standard and they are both mechanical and electrical, they are controlled in both ways. So, what we have on ground now is that the CCTV cameras are all going to be interwoven together to the entrances.

“If any of the gates or the trunk side where pedestrians are moving is affected the cameras are positioned in such a way that they can capture any movement within and outside the building. One other thing about this warehouse is that you can view what is happening here in the comfort of your home; that is for people that are strategically placed in the organization like the cargo manager.”

When completed the warehouse would have 4,500 racks and rollers connecting the warehouse to the bulk break area for easy movement and these are controlled electronically.

Agboarumi explained that these rollers moved cargo from the bulk breaking area directly into the warehouse and the rack inside the warehouse determines which rack the cargo goes to.
On the difference between the company’s existing warehouse and the one under construction, he said: “The existing warehouse we have now is a common warehouse that you get everywhere; it is not automated.

We don’t have rollers, it just forklift moving in and out in any direction. But in this new warehouse there are limited areas where you have movement. The bulk of the cargo is broken and it is dropped cargo by cargo according to size on the pallet and the rack and the same way it is delivered to agent outside the warehouse.”

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